Jake Dyble

I am a first-year doctoral candidate based jointly at the University of Exeter and the Università di Pisa. My current focus is the phenomenal expansion of maritime commerce in early modern Europe, and the political, cultural and legal changes that occurred it its wake. I am also interested in the development of the science of political economy.

My thesis will focus on Livorno, a cosmopolitan free-port in central Italy. Specifically, it will examine the development and operation of 'general average' (GA), a quasi-legal instrument used to share extraordinary costs associated with a maritime voyage across interested parties. GA will provide a platform from which to explore a) the relationships between culture, institutions, and economic growth as well as b) the interplay between cosmopolitan communities of merchants and increasingly formidable state structures. I am working under the umbrella of the ERC project 'Average - Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization' (AveTransRisk).

Before coming to I studied at the University of Cambridge where I completed a BA in history (first-class honours) and was awarded the Trevelyan History Prize. I then progressed to complete an MPhil in medieval history. My first publication is a contribution to Richard Löwenherz: König, Ritter, Gefangener, a forthcoming volume issued by the Historische Museum der Pfalz, Speyer.